Egypt: A Public Private Partnership to Protect the Cultural Heritage of Countries in Crisis

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Deborah Lehr, Founding Chairman of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at The George Washington University; Director of the Paulson Institute

Since the revolution in January 2011, modern day Egypt has fallen victim to the scourge of international antiquities crime. The Capitol Archaeological Institute at the George Washington University has launched a public-private partnership with The Government of Egypt to attempt to combat looting and cultural racketeering in Egypt. Lehr will present evidence of the increase in looting since the Revolution, share the mission of the partnership and how it came about, and discuss the crisis of antiquities theft countries in crisis and how the model with Egypt might be applicable.

Deborah Lehr serves as the founding Chairman of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at The George Washington University. In that capacity, she launched the International Coalition to raise the profile of the looting of antiquities in Egypt, resulting in a private-public partnership with the Egyptian government.

In addition, Lehr is the Director of the Paulson Institute, a think tank founded by former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, at the University of Chicago. Lehr has managed a successful consulting business representing Western and Chinese companies such as Sesame Workshop, Tory Burch, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Pfizer, Sony Music, Time Warner and Boeing. Lehr has also served in the US Government where she was a lead negotiator for China's WTO Accession at the US Trade Representative, a Director of Asian Affairs at the National Security Council, and involved in export control and trade policy issues at the Department of Commerce. She serves as a member of the Council of Advisors for National Geographic, and on the Board of the Archaeological Institute of America and the International Advisory Board of the London School of Economics.